Fallout 3 AER9 Laser Rifle

A few weeks before ArcadeCon in Dublin I was asked to build the AER9 Laser Rifle from Fallout 3 as part of a cosplay costume.  I had experience with building guns before and I'd see how other prop markers had created this rifle in the past so I took on the commission.  The only problem was the time limit.  ArcadeCon was fast approaching and I was without my normal workshop.  Luckily I had seen how papercrafter  Mousemuffins  had built the Hellboy gun and thought to myself, I could make it out of card.  So I did.  Metierials for this build where sinple enough.  Several sharp knives, 6 tubes of super glue, 3 sheets of 2mm hard card, a sheet of plasticard and a block of balsa wood.

To start with I looked up the design of the Laser rifle and found the blue prints.  From there I work out the scale of the gun in Photoshop and planned out how I would go about making it.  I knew that I would need a thick spine for the person to hold onto as well as to make the gun sturdy as possible.  I drew out the shape of the spine onto the card and use that as a template to draw and cut out 5 more.

This was pretty much the most tedious part of the whole build and took about 2 days to get them all cut out.

Once they where all cut out I aliened them up and superglued them together.  I used a full tube and made use I got ever corner.  There was slight irregularities when they were aliened, but that was to be expected and I would sand them down later to get a nice smooth finish.  The centers was also cut out so that I could fit a cross cut of card down the middle which would help keep the blocky shape of the gun stable and give me something to glue the sides onto.

Once the spine was set, I went about make the sides, top and bottom which would make up the exterior of the gun.

Since I would worried about weight, suing balsa wood was best choice for the details such as the handles.  As it is easy easy to cut and shape.  I cut out 6 strips from the plasticard to add some grip detail to the from handle.

The back handle was cut to shape and glued in place.  I would sand out a proper grip pattern into it later, before painting.  As the main body was finished I move on to adding the front detail.  This consisted of making it larger by adding a block of card to the front as well as cutting out and attaching the front extrusion that would hold the center pipe.

The back of the gun, whoever, was much more complex.  I started by cutting out a section from the gun which would house the "power core" of the gun. At least I think that is what it is.  Once again I added a block of card to bulk it out  The housing and the power core itself was cut and shaped from balsa wood.  A lot of raised detailed was added using 2 or 3 strips of card glued together.  The pipe under the gun was 2 lengths of 5mm and 4mm plastic tube with some shaped balsa wood for the ends.  The pipe on the top of the gun was a lot more difficult due to its shape.  Leaving it in boiling water softened it up enough to curve it, but it was not perfect.  I've still yet to come up with a way of bending pipes that creates the desirably effect.

The front and back detail was just a simple manor of cutting card to the right size and shape.  Gluing them was tricky as they where so small, but there is nothing the adding of more superglue can not fix.

This was also when I used my dremel to sand out a proper grip shape for the bank handle.  It was the one modification that the client want made to the gun, as he thought its normal shape was too unwieldy.  I used Polyfilla to smooth out all the seams and join lines through out the gun.  As well as fill out any flat areas.  Then, armed with 400 and 800 gauge sandpaper I spent hours going over the body until I was happy I could move onto painting.

Now on to painting.  Since the gun was set in the Fallout universe it had to look old and worn.  So I got to try out a few different weather technique that I had learned from fellow prop makers.  Plus my own experence while paint the Heavy Bolter . I started with a base coat of black.  Then coated the main body in green.   I dabbed on silver paint, mixed with black, layer after layer till I got the effect of worn out metal.  The same technique was use on the body to dirty the bright green until it resemble something that had been  left, uncleaned for year.

More weather was added in the form of scrape mark along the metal body as well as the edges been scuffed with white paint to show wear and tear.  The pipe on the top as well as the power core where done in a bright yellow, which was then aged in the same manor as the green of the body.  I always worry when I start to paint a project that it is not going to tun our right, but then I start weather and I realise there is no such thing as a wrong look for weather.  It''s suppose to look messy.  I normally end up have to step away and say "it's done" otherwise you could just keep going and going.

And here we have the finished piece with a nice instagram filter on it.  Just to give it that gritty look.  

I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out given that fact that I only had two weeks to build it and I was working with card, something that I had not used to build something of this scale before.  Yes there was a few mistakes made but you learn from them and remember to plan further ahead next time.


-Matty